Kendo information from Geoff

Nobody likes us!

Nobody likes us and we don’t care! is the motto of fans of Millwall Football Club. I sometimes think that Kendo is the Millwall of the Martial Arts World.

Most exponents of any sort of jutsu criticise kendo for being too sporty, practitioners of any of the body arts see it being a waste of time as it has no practical benefit for self defense. Judoka view kendo as not being sporty enough and our closest relations, the followers of Iai and Jodo, given that they do not have an active interest in kendo, believe that we are thugs.

Judo and Kendo share a similar heritage; both were distilled from fighting arts and developed as physical and moral education systems. One or the other was a compulsory element of the Japanese school system and both are growing faster outside Japan than in their country of origin.

The key difference between Judo and Kendo is that Judo became an Olympic sport some 45 years ago and Kendo is still sitting on the fence. Most kendoka voice the opinion that Kendo is better as a non Olympic event, we get to preserve the mental and spiritual aspects and the point system will continue to be based on the quality and effectiveness of strike.

I have to admit a personal bias, having moved from Judo to Kendo at a time when Ippon and Wazaari became in my view devalued by their poor relations Yuko and Koka. I am sure that an army of Judo followers will disagree with me, but I believe that Judo lost some of its magic and most of its discipline.

However I do not think now is a time for people who share my view to be smug. Kendo is now a member of GAISF, which is seen as the runway for minority sports to qualify for Olympic status. I know that FIK explain this move as a necessary to preclude other bodies from hijacking Kendo, but we are already looking at the introduction of drugs testing at the next World Championships.

Of course you can make powerful arguments in either direction. Having been responsible for raising money for the 12th World Kendo Championships and having received not one penny in state aid, I can see the attractions of Olympic status, but selfishly, I like kendo as it is.

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I see a lot of people differentiating between JUDO and 柔道 over here nowadays. The non-kanji version is of-course the de-Japanifyed international sport/Olympic judo that we see everywhere nowadays. The ‘real’ judo is of-course 柔道… one where there is a sporting element but where winning at any cost is looked down upon.

During last years Olympics and in the various judo competitions that are sometimes shown on tv here there is always the comment about how “Nippon no judo” (Japanese judo) is different from international judo. The biggest difference being that the Japanese judoka (according to the commentators) tends to aim for an ippon using a technique polished via keiko over time rather than using brute force or height as an advantage to chip away at the opponent.

One of the biggest judo stories that has been in the news recently was when the 2008 All Japan Championship and Olympic gold medal winner (100kg+) Ishii Satoshi quit judo and moved into Mixed Martial Arts….. much to the fury of the judo association and the disappointment of the Japanese public.

At the end of the day, I believe, although he has skill he didnt learn anything about budo.

Hear! Hear!
God forbid that Kendo will follow the path of Judo or Tae Kwondo. Beating up the shinpan when you don’t agree with their decisions is apparently something that could be seen in Bejing last year.

I think that it has really been determined that a large part of the dedicated Kendo community wouldn’t want Kendo to be in the Olympics out of fear of the shortcuts necessary to make it “marketable” to the masses. The rest of the community most likely wouldn’t care about the end result as long as they can do Kendo and the remainder probably have no opinion since they haven’t been doing it long enough to really get some sort of real attachment to the art we all know and love.

One thing I would like to propose is a shift in thinking. What about if Kendo became part of the Olympics? I think that this could be more complicated than one might think because, while there are many people that do Kendo and have their opinions about it, there are only a few people that make the decisions to affect all of us. Is there anything that we can do to try to preserve the art, or at least separate ourselves from the Olympic style? Is there really some sort of compromise we can come up with that might make Kendo marketable, but still retain most, if not all, of the concepts that comprise of our art? But then, I guess we could all ask ourselves whether or not the governing bodies of the AJKF and FIK would really want Kendo to go in that direction if it meant losing its heart for the sake of gained membership through popularity. For all we know, these steps could really be just so that they can stake a claim on Kendo to prevent others from putting their own bastardization on the list and confusing people. But since I am pretty low on the totem pole, that’s something that would be pretty hard to find out for myself.

I guess if we are concerned with Kendo becoming an Olympic sport — I’m not downing anyone’s concern because I do know the evidence is there to head towards that direction — it’s probably best we sort of form some sort of game plan about how we would feel and what we would do if the situation were to turn that direction.

I have a minor but little known illustration (if we really needed any more of them) of the how the “Olympicafication” of Judo has been a negative. Recently I had to purchase some tatami for our state renmei to use as shiaisha marshalling zones and I learned an interesting fact. Olympic judo tatami are *smaller* than normal tatami! Not only that, they are 40-50% more expensive! Pay more, get less. b

I do agree with your “selfish” standpoint. I like Kendo as it is. And I am still convinced that competition perverts the essence of any art. In other words, a marketable discipline always brings so many money issues on the table that it dramatically modifies the way of the art.

Olympics are a business. Nothing else. Far, far away from Baron de Coubertin’ spirit (and this is a french man writting this)

Remember that Olympics are supposed to be a set of game amongst “amateurs” that is to say non professional athletes?? Such as : Rafael Nadal (tennis), NBA US Team (Basket)…etc